San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1887-11-24
The Chicago AnarehIsts.

Tn another column we give place
TO an article from the Columbus Git
izon on this subject, 1t is tho only
article which we have thus far seen
in a Texas newspaper at all favorable
TO the men recently executed at Chi
cago, and il must DO confessed, we
think, that il "hows TO the line" pref
ty closely, tells some wholesome
truths, and is altogether worthy OF
careful reading and consideration. IL
required no small degree OF moral
courage TO give utterance at this
time TO such views, and rs we like to
see man have "the courage Of his
convictions, we honor brother Baker
for his manly frankness. We will go
fart her, and confess that almost No
to the present writing we have en-
tertained the same views; but We
have now seen cause TO modify them
greatly.
The fact that such men as L. "
Powderly and Henry George, I'M
questionably earnest and enlightened
friends of the workingman, have sus-
tanned the finding of the courts
against the anarchists has all along
seemed to us very serious point
against them. But in his paper The
Standard, of the 10Th inst, Mr.
George reviews the whole matter and
makes clear case against them.
We have only space for one passage
He says:
Until the seven judges OF the su-
preme court of Illinois, after q full
examination of the evidence and the
record, unanimously sustained the
verdict and the sentence, it was cer-
tainly my impression-an impression
confirmed by the opinions of men
whom 1 knew to be fair minded-that
the seven anarchists, or at least some
OF them. no matter how much moral
connection their teaching and agita-
ton might have had with the throw
ing of the bomb, had, in the excited
state of public feeling in Chicago,
been condemned on evidence that
did not really amount to legal proof,
and were only connected with the
bomb throwing by general and vague
indictments to acts of the kind. A
reading of the summary OF the evil
dence which is embraced in the de-
cision of the supreme court of Illinois
showed me that this WAS not correct,
but that enough evidence had been
presented to clearly connect the seven
men with a specific conspiracy to use
dynamite against the police on the
evening on which the bomb was
thrown, and to render them under
the statutes of Illinois, and on the
common principles of law, as much
guilty as though with their own hands
they had thrown the bomb.
In the same issue of The Standard
appears letter from Judge Mcguire
on the subject in reply to one from a
lady who believing they had not had
fair trial, had asked his interposi-
ton in their behalf Mr.. George
says of Judge Mcguire that he is "a
man in full sympathy with all true
reforms and at the same time ac'
quainted with legal procedure and
accustomed to the weighing of evi-
dence." After u long review of the
case Judge Mcguire sums up his con-
illusions as follows:
I am entirely satisfied that the
condemned men are all guilty; that
they were fairly tried and justly con-
victed, and that if the death penalty
should be inflicted upon any one,
these men deserve it.
But am opposed to capital punish
ment. l believe that it brutalizes all
who are either directly or indirectly
parties to it, and that it lends sanction
to murder.
The anticipation of the horrible
tragedy to be enacted by society in
Chicago on the 11th of November
shocks the finer moral sense of civil
izatlon, and the act itself will
tend to degrade our moral standard
to the level of that adopted by the
men whose lives are to be taken.
There are many other reasons why
these men, Notwithstanding their
guilt, should not be hanged, but it is
not necessary, nor would it be inter
esting, to review them.
With the first clause of the above
we are reluctantly flor some of these
men were capable of better things)
compelled to coincide, while we most
heartily concur with the remainder
of the passage.